Diphenylsilicate-incorporated Nafion® membranes for reduction of methanol crossover in direct methanol fuel cells

We synthesized organically modified silicate microparticles, known as diphenylsilicate (DPS), and showed that the synthesized DPS has a nano-layered microstructure. We utilized this material as a filler for fabricating Nafion®|DPS composite membranes for mitigating the problem of methanol crossover in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC). The SEM and XRD analyses indicated that the incorporated DPS microparticles were uniformly distributed in the native membrane. The DMFC performance tests demonstrated that the use of the Nafion®|DPS composite membranes resulted in a lower rate of methanol crossover, higher open-circuit voltage (OCV) and better cell performance than did the pure Nafion® membrane, especially with a higher methanol concentration such as 10 M.